2013 NBA Off Season Recap: Atlantic Division

The NBA Off Season is almost a month old. While there are still plenty of free agents out there, most signings and trades have been finalized and we can start to see what rosters will look like for next season. This is a good time to give my thoughts on each roster, going division by division, with projected order of finish.----------

This is not what the NBA had in mind when they went with a stiffer tax penalty for teams over the cap, but here we are. The Nets won 49 games last year and their roster is much better, tougher and deeper. Gone are the under whelming overpaid Kris Humphries and Gerald Wallace, and in return enter long time Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. The team also added several other veterans to the bench. Jason Terry and Andrei Kirilenko bring a ton of veteran leadership and experience to Brooklyn's second unit, and Shaun Livingston and Alan Anderson are also on board. It still all starts with Deron Williams and Brook Lopez. If Williams can get back to the way he played with the Jazz, this team has serious NBA Finals potential. It will be interesting to see if first time coach of any kind Jason Kidd can make this team gel. Mikhail Prokhorov basically demanded a championship since he is paying more taxes then most team pay payroll. No pressure there.

Like the Nets, the salary cap Knicks were still able to swing a trade to add to their starting lineup and pick up a couple solid veterans for cheap to round out their bench. Andrea Bargnani is the key acquisition this off season. I actually think it was a pretty good pick up for New York. Sure, he is seriously overpaid but the Knicks will be well over the cap for a few years, and did not have to give up anything for a player who still does have 20 point per game potential. He should be able to stretch the floor while Carmelo Anthony dominates the ball. JR Smith returns as New York's second offensive option. With Amar'e Stoudemire, Metta World Peace, Kenyon Martin, Pablo Prigioni as well as Smith, the Knicks have one of the better benches in the league. New York had trouble scoring during the playoffs, and other then Anthony, Smith and Bargnani, it is hard to find a player on this roster who you can count on for offense, and that will probably be their shortcoming during the playoffs in 2014.

Executive of the year Masai Ujiri left the Nuggets to return to Toronto, and he made his presence felt right away. He dealt long time disappointment Andrea Bargnani to the Knicks for spare parts. The Raptors added quite a few players (Tyler Hansbrough, DJ Augustin, Dwight Buycks, Austin Daye), but they all project to be bench guys. The key to the Raptors success likely lies with Jonas Valanciunas, who is set to make a huge leap forward during his second season. Valanciunas is a legit 7 footer with serious offensive promise, and he just turned 21 in May. Rudy Gay is a good player to have on your roster, but not at his salary. I am thinking that Ujiri wishes he could have Ed Davis back in exchange for Gay. The Raptors will be competitive, but they simply have too many average players making big time money, like DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry and Landry Fields. Toronto will most likely languish around the 30-35 win mark and miss out on a top draft pick.

Say what you want about Danny Ainge, but he is not afraid to take chances. Several years ago, he traded away most of his youth for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and that helped bring a title to Boston. Years later he dealt away the best Celtic in two decades and a first ballot Hall of Famer to accelerate the rebuilding process. The three late first round picks are okay I suppose, but I have a very hard time accepting why Ainge traded Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett for salary cap albatrosses Kris Humphries and Gerald Wallace. Rajon Rondo is the only sure fire starter on this roster. All of the other positions will be up for grabs, with young draft picks and aging veterans fighting over scraps. The Celtics are definitely in the mix for Andrew Wiggins and company.

There will be a lot of teams tanking for Andrew Wiggins, but the 76ers have definitely gotten the jump on their competition. The new general manager traded Jrue Holiday, the best player on the team, for Nerlens Noel and a 2014 first round pick. They also let Andrew Bynum walk. So in essence the 76ers traded Andre Iguodala, Nikola Vucevic and Moe Harkless for a player that never played a minute for their franchise. The Sixers drafted Michael Carter-Williams to fill the point guard role, but other then that, they have not made any effort whatsoever to add to this roster. The 76ers are going to be terrible, and are clearly the front runners in the Andrew Wiggins sweepstakes.